Today I would like to share with you some highlights from fitness guru and everydayhealth.com “inspiration editor” Jillian Michaels’ interview with America’s money guru Suze Orman on health, wealth and happiness.

Suze Orman embodies a New York Times best-selling author, an Emmy award winner, one of Forbes magazine’s most powerful women in America, one of Time magazine’s most influential people in the world, Oprah’s money guru, America’s money lady, and the list goes on.

It’s for this reason that, as Jillian Michaels assumed her new role as “inspiration editor” for everydayhealth.com, Suze was her first call.

Every month Jillian will be doing interviews with some of the most … well … inspiring people in the world.

In this exclusive interview with Jillian Michaels, Suze Orman shares the path that lead to her true calling.

Enjoy!

Suze Orman went to the University of Illinois, after which she landed her dream job as a waitress at the Buttercup Bakery, where she worked for 7 years for $ 400 a month, until she got that brainstorm that she could open her own restaurant. Her parents didn’t have the money she needed to give her for this purpose.

To cut a long story short, all the people that she had been waiting on for all those years rallied together and gave her $50,000 to open up her own restaurant. However, she didn’t know what to do with that money and was told to go down and put it in a money market account with Merrill Lynch and let it sit there until she learned what to do to open up a restaurant.

Again, to make a long story short, the broker who took that money ended up trading it in one of the most speculative strategies around — the options market — and within three months lost all $50,000.

That’s when Suze Orman started learning how to be a stockbroker. As she was studying to be a stockbroker she read what was known as the “you’re your customer rule,” which essentially stated that you could not risk a clients’ money if they could not afford to lose it. So, in essence, what the stockbroker who lost all her money did, was illegal.
When she told the manager that she thought the stockbroker was a crook, he said, “That crook makes us a lot of money, so go and sit down and say nothing”.
It would have been easy to sit there and say nothing, but it would not have been right. So, Suze ended up suing Merrill Lynch while she worked for them. Here is the great part: Because she sued them they could not fire her — who knew? By the time the case was to go to court she was their No. 6-producing broker in the Oakland office. Right around that time a new manager came in, looked at the case, settled out of court, and gave her back the $50,000 plus interest. She was able to pay everybody else back, and that is how she got her start in the business of investing!
In short, Suze Orman took a major setback and turned it into an opportunity!
This scenario would have devastated most people, and yet, Suze accepted the intervention of fate, found meaning in it, learned from it and subsequently the woman she is today was born.

And hey, if you are someone who is suffering a major failure or setback, here is Suze’s advice to you: Do not give up and fall apart! You’ve got to have faith that everything happens for the best.
Suze’s understanding is that every “no” leads you that much closer to a “yes.” When one door closes another door opens. She has had many setbacks in her career and every setback has led her that much further into her truth.

The economic downturn inspired Orman’s new book “The Money Class”, in which she looks at personal finance in a whole new light.
After 30 years in this business, Suze has written many best-selling books on money. Why another book on money? What makes this book different?
Well, here is Suze Orman’s reply to this question:
When the financial debacle happened in 2008 and 2009 and 2010, Suze knew during those three years that it was very probable that it was not ending any time soon and the world of money had changed and would never change back to how it was before.
The reason? People were not truthful in terms of what they could afford and the entire economy seemed to be based on lies, deceit, and greed.

People needed to go back to class to learn about money all over again. Hence the title “The Money Class”. And the subtitle of that book is “Learn to create your new American dream”. Suze wanted to give people the ability once again to realize that they can still dream, but it has to be a new American dream that’s based on honesty, integrity, and security.

And here is one major tip from this book: Stand in your truth. The truth is the absolute essence to your success, while lies are the absolute essence to your failures.
In other words: “Doing well is the result of doing good”!

In her interview with Jillian Michaels, Suze Orman shares also her recent health challenges and makes the case that while wealth can help you get good health care it does not guarantee good health. In her opinion your health is the No. 1 important thing in your life. You can have all the money in the world but if you do not have health it means nothing.
The No. 1 reason for bankruptcy today in America is medical expenses. For this reason, health insurance is really important.

And what does Suze Orman think about happiness?
You don’t need to wait for big moments of happiness: small ones await you everywhere, says she.
She gets more inspired by seeing everyday people succeed against the odds than anything else in life.
The happiest moment in Suze Orman’s life happens once a day – it’s recognition of how much she is at home with who she is and that she is at one with the world. Changing lives makes her happy. Enough said.

Today she has faith that the children of America can be touched and changed and that they themselves can touch and change the world and that gives her more hope than she has had in a long, long time.

Finally, doesn’t Suze Orman’s compelling tale about how she went from rags to riches leave you feeling like you could conquer the world?The bottom line: Nothing can stop you from achieving your goals!
To read Jillian Michaels’ full interview with Suze Orman, visit everydayhealth.com.